As per popular demand, I have stickied this thread so that everyone can benefit from the great tips and pointers that this community has put forth! Please do not hesitate to put your suggestions forward. I will do my best to keep on top of it and edit the new ones into the original post.

Best wishes, Beckett Community!

Okay... that might be the king of cheesy titles! Haha! I am also teaching myself (POORLY) HTML Scripting, so bear with my MANY flaws.

***EDIT*** Thank you to all who have taken the time to read this through and respond! The Hockey Boards are an amazing community here on Beckett.com, and I am so glad to be an integral part (as per the comments and posts that I constantly receive) of this community! Thank you all so much!

Randi

With all of the mishaps and poor trading etiquette that seems to be happening around the boards, I thought that I might share the methods that have garnered me a good reputation around here. I am not trying to blow my horn, or insult/disparage anyone on the boards, but am hoping that I can give assistance to anyone who needs it. If you have any advice to add (please only positive), then you are welcomed to do so!

First on the agenda is checking your cards for damage. I failed to do this once, and actually accidentally burned a friend. I sent out a card that had a ding on the back corner of it, and only inspected the front of the card. I did not get negative feedback, but was docked a star (rightfully so).

It is best to inspect your cards under a decent light so that you can see all aspects of the surface, whether it be glossy, embossed, raised, or what-have-you. Move the card(s) from side-to-side and up-and-down to reflect the light off the entire surface. If you see any scratches, let the other trader know that they are there. This may not seem like a big deal to some people, but it can be what breaks a trade.

The corners and edges should be inspected as well (front AND back, Randi!!!) for dings, softness and creases. Dark, glossy cards tend to chip a LOT, and most every collector knows this... but it still helps to mention it.

***EDIT Thanks to TonySmart for this one!

In order to help you out with the inspection and "grading" process... scans/pics of the card(s) are invaluable! It gives you something that you can share with the other trader, and saves you from having to write out a big PM explaining the condition of the card(s). If you need help on how to add pictures to your PMs or threads, you can find it here, along with many other useful tidbits about the site!

On to protecting your cards. Sometimes I have noticed that, when putting a card into a soft-sleeve, the corner will catch against the sleeve's edge. This can cause chipping and dings on the card, so please be careful even when putting the cards into protection!

***EDIT*** Thank you to varial for this huge innovation!!!

This is a great and insanely cheap way to ensure that your cards go into the sleeves chip and ding free! Cut two pieces of paper to just about the size of a sleeve, or fold a double-sized piece in half, and place them/it into the sleeve before inserting your card. This will give the card a plane to move along and will glide it into it's place in the sleeve without incident. Remove the paper plane (don't go there, Hugh or swjrp10!!!), and you are done! This is a very valuable technique, especially when it comes to 75pt-180pt cards. We have all had our fair share of difficulty when placing the thicker cards (looking at you, The Cup and Dominion!!!) in their sleeves, so this should alleviate any hardships!

Only after the card is in a soft-sleeve should it go into a top-loader. There may be errant dust or hair in the top-loader that can cause damage to the card after the fact. Blowing into the top-loader will only put moisture into it making it useless, so don't do that! The other option is a one touch holder. These are costly at around $2-3 each, so they are not optimal for every card in your collection. I personally tend to keep them for the THICK patch cards, or for high-valued, highly sought after cards. Some people put their own personal rules on it ($100+, $50+) too.

***EDIT*** Thanks to miketaylor72 for this little hint!

Another thing that you should protect your cards from (if it applies to you) is cigarette smoke! There are way more non-smokers than smokers now and I can tell you it really stands out to us and bothers us to smell it. I bet that even smokers would be unhappy to receive cards that smell of stale cigarettes and it could inhibit your future trades with said trader. If it is possible, keep your cards separate from your smoking area. Thanks!

***Edit*** Thanks to hockeynick1721 for pointing out my major oversight!

This topic is a stressful one nowadays, as the Org. is now a luxury on the site (unless you have less than 100 cards in there), and many people who do not have a subscription are unable to access their Org.

There are a few ways to fire your cards into your Org., and they all start with a search! You have to be pretty accurate on the spelling, and pay close attention to the cards that pop up. If you are searching for a specific year, you have to enter it into the search bar as you would see it in the Beckett.com Database (i.e. 1999-00, 2011-12). One thing to remember is to use the filters provided on the left-hand side of the screen. They use filter terms like Sport, Set, Year, Mem., AU, JSY, and so forth.

Once you have the desired card(s) that you are looking for you can either check off the selection box on the left-hand side of the Description, or hit the folder icon with the + on the right hand side. A drop-down menu will appear, and you can select which Org. folder that you want to place your card(s) into. When done your search(es), head on over to your Org. and correlate the appropriate numbers in the appropriate columns... and I am NOT writing out how to fully set up your Org. as it is covered in the Help Forums here How To Add Cards To Organize and here Explanation Of New Trade Column Headings! Haha!

Now on to Nick's digression... there are MANY parallel sets for MANY years. The one that seems to be giving people the most hassle is 2008-09 O-Pee-Chee. There are the Retro; Retro Blank Backs; Retro Rainbow; Gold; Metal and Metal X! Still not a PPLE (Panini-Parallel-Level-Event), but a huge hassle none-the-less! I personally do not know the difference between all of them (though there are MANY questioning threads about it), and I am sure there are still a lot of people out there scratching their heads over this. Please make sure that you find the correct parallel that you are in possession of or, as Nick pointed out, you might be shorting someone a card that they need, and garnering yourself some negative feedback!

***EDIT*** Thanks to pens1fan for pointing this one out!

Recently (or not so recently... I am not obliged to look at the exact dates! ) Beckett.com was doing a survey about what us traders and hobbyists thought that our cards, freshly ripped from packs and un-graded, would be rated as for a baseline. The survey came in and we said that NrMt. (8) was the level that we would like to see our cards go into our Org. as a control. Cool! Nothing wrong with that... unless you take in to account that all of the cards that you had in your Org. previous to the poll are now marked at Mint (9)!!! Oops! Well, not so cool after all.

So this creates a huge issue when it comes to trading. That issue is that all of your cards that are marked at Mint (9) are now worth 125% of the Book Value. This can create some hassle when it comes to trading. I had previously created a thread about this issue, so go in there and have a read (if you need to, or would like to), as it details the quickest way (that I have found) to mark all of your cards in your Org. back to the NrMt. (8) baseline. I do have some bad news, however... if you have marked cards in your Org. according to the condition that you have found them to be {NrMt (7), ExMt (6), etc.}, they will also be changed. This means that you will have to go in there and re-"grade" (I put the quotes there because we are not professional graders, and we do not have the right to say what true grades our cards are) said cards. I am just the messenger, so I hope that I don't get any shots fired my way!

Now... I know that ALL of us have that bunch of taped up, grimy looking, gunky old top-loaders that we have received in trades, and used in trades just to pass them along! Well... this is okay! As long as your card(s) is protected in shipping, the other trader will be happy. I try to stay away from using them when I know the other trader is garnering card(s) from me for their Personal Collection, and would want to showcase the card(s), but to each their own!

On to why we even have those gunky top-loaders. I know that the easiest way to secure a card in the top-loader is to tape the top of it shut. Well, this creates a whole new problem. First is the inevitable outcome of the gunky top-loader that nobody wants. That's not too big a deal. The second issue is that this can actually damage the card! If the trader wants to remove the card from the taped top-loader, and they just break or cut the tape, there is that residual flap that hangs over the edge, waiting to snare your card as it comes out. This will rip the gloss right off of the card, or better yet, will rip a chunk out of older cards. I am sad to say that even Panini and Upper Deck use this practice, and I have nearly lost a couple of cards because of this issue.

***EDIT*** Thank you to Tyson (wickabee) for this insight!

Should you be a person who tapes their top-loaders (again!.!.!. there is not an issue with this directly), please, for the love of all that is Holy, put a tab (fold one end of the tape over upon itself) on the end of one side of the tape strip! This will make it immensely easier to remove the tape from the top-loader for the people who have garnered cards from you for their PC!!!

***EDIT***Thanks to John (bluefrozencanuck) for this great tip!

Another way to protect the cards that you are sending from tape damage is to place a small piece of paper over the top of the top-loader and then tape over that. This ensures that the tape will never touch the card(s), saving it from possible damage! Also masking tape is another way to go if you tape the top-loaders. It comes off easily, and hardly leaves a residue.

***EDIT*** Thanks to leadmetogreatness for the insight!

I forgot to mention that you can also place the decoy cards that come in packs around your top-loaders before you tape them, or into the baggie for extra sturdiness! I tend to use the decoy cards if I have only three or less cards going into the padded mailer. This lessens the chance of the card(s) bending, and will be some extra security!

***EDIT***Thanks to Ryan (rczubaty) for this one!

When you are finished taping your top-loaders (Hehe!) in a multi-card trade and are ready to send out, PLEASE make sure that you secure your cards before placing them into your bubble/padded mailer. This increases the rigidity of the package and saves the cards from rumbling around in transit and lessens the chance that the cards will be bent. It is a courtesy that I am sure we would all appreciate to have bestowed upon us!

Another ailment that can come from taping the top-loader is that if you are taping the top of a super-thick, you risk the chance of actually denting the card. The top-loader will form a concave and press into the card's top edge. I have pulled a jersey Halak card out of the top-loader only to find that the upper edge of it had compressed where the folded-in top-loader had rested against it. I was not happy, but left it at that, as I was not going to get rid of my PC card that I found difficult to obtain.

There are many innovative ways to get around the taping issue. My favorite is to hit Dollarama and go into the Arts & Crafts aisle. There I find baggies that are slightly bigger than team bags (and WAY less expensive at $1 for 40 instead of $3-5 for 50) which house top-loaders perfectly. Sandwich bags also work, and they keep the tape off of the top-loaders. After I put the cards in the bags, I fold the edges in and tape them to size. Easy as that!

Another way that I have been seeing people use is to fold a sheet of paper tightly around the top-loaders, and then taping them up. This is by FAR the least expensive way to keep the tape off of the top-loaders, and it give the lot extra rigidity! It may be a bit of a bootch (there is no cussing allowed on the boards, so I have to be innovative) to open, but at least you know that your cards are protected.

Now, not every single card has to go into it's own top-loader (I refuse to put single base cards into a casing that matches them in value!) and there are a few ways that I know of to get around this too. I always put them in a soft-sleeve (two-to-three per sleeve is fine) first, and then usually fire them into a super thick top-loader that has been gunked up (ever seen so much use of the word gunky?) and that I have no PC use for. If I am out of gunky super-thicks, I will sandwich them between a few top-loaders (two or more on EACH side, and no more than four cards between) and then place them into the baggie. If I do this, I make SURE to tape the sides of the baggie tightly as to keep the edges strong, and to keep the singles from moving past the edges of the top-loaders. I have had no complaints about this method, and have actually had other members compliment me on my card care many times over. I guess I am doing something right! Haha!

There is NO way around this... PADDED MAILERS! PWE (plain white envelopes) will never do! I can get three bubble mailers for $1 at Dollarama, or 6 for $2.67 at WalMart. You have to use bubble mailers or padded envelopes in order to ship, or the other end will almost surely give you a negative feedback. When you hit the post office, tell them that you are shipping an Over-Sized package. The weight might not meet the restrictions, but the envelope most surely will. I have actually gotten into arguments with the postal clerk over whether the package is Over-Sized or not! I have had a couple of them come back to me for not having the right postage on them, and I will not let this happen again! It may cost a few pennies more, but it's worth it to cut down the already slow delivery time that we all have to deal with, in order to assure that the package will not be returned with insufficient postage stamped on it.

Tracking the package is another story. It costs $8 + Postage here in Canada to put tracking on a package staying in Canada, and $13 + Postage for one going to the USA from Canada (International is INSANE! Haha!), so most people prefer not to use this unless it is for a very high valued trade. I tend to ask for tracking on trades with $150+ worth of cards on each end. This is regardless of whether I know the other member really well or not. I just don't trust the postal systems, and would rather not chance it. Everybody has to make their own call on this one, so keep that in mind. If another member asks you to put tracking on a package, please swallow it and do so! They are doing it, and they had to do it at some point in their trading history.

This just came to my attention... proper timing when sending out your trade. This is a very important one! The general rule is to send your end of the trade as soon as you accept it, but we are all realistic and reasonable. Most people send their ends out on within two days, and this is completely Kosher! Haha! The ONLY exception is if you are an experienced trader and you are trading with a new trader (see Newbies Corner below), then you wait for their end to come in before sending your end out.

IF... (this is a BIG IF!) IF you foresee an issue with not being able to send your end of the trade out right away (illness, out of town, busy, etc.) have the courtesy to let the other trader know (ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE ACTIVE ON THE BOARDS!!!). Shipping late can garner you some neutral or negative feedback. Should you not have shipped your end of the trade by the time the other person's end gets to you, there might be some very hard feelings on their end. It looks like you are waiting for their end to arrive first, and this is not something that should be done to experienced members! I can almost guarantee that you will garner some negative feedback for that one. Be courteous to your fellow trader and SHIP ON TIME!

If you are a new member to the Beckett.com Community, and have less than 20 Positive feedbacks, you will almost certainly be asked to send your cards out to the other trader first, and they will send theirs out to you when your end arrives safe and sound. I had to do it, everyone else here had to do it, so please do not take it in offence. It is a great way to establish yourself as a member on the boards, and the reputable community members will always make sure to spread the word of your transaction.

***EDIT***

We are all very happy to see this huge influx of new traders in the Beckett Community! With every new trader comes a new chance at landing that big card you want, or ensuring a new friend and trading partner. There is one thing that seems to be common among the new traders though, and that is you have no cards marked For Trade in your Organize! It's tough to trade with someone when it looks like you have nothing in your inventory. Also... it's against the Terms Of Service to ask for trades and not have anything in your Org. So please be sure to have your cards organized and marked appropriately. If you need any help with this at all, just give one of the more experienced members a nod and we will be more than happy to help you out!

This one is a lot trickier. There are plenty of members here on Beckett.com that don't really take part in the forums. They like to use the site as a Trade Tool only, and that is fine. If you receive a trade offer from someone that you rarely see on the boards, just take the few seconds to read their feedback. It will give you a lot to work with. Look for the comments and repeat traders. This will assure you that they are on the level, and that you will be safe trading with them. If they are constantly on the boards and have great feedback, I can say that you have nothing to worry about!

Another way to do this is to ask someone on the boards, through a PM, that you fully trust about the other trader. If they give you the go ahead, then all will be good! I have had many other members ask me about other traders, and I always give my honest opinion.

Pretty well everyone knows that I was accidentally given a negative feedback a little while ago. It's not a big deal at all, but it does kinda make you feel left out. There is no way to rectify this yet, so it looms there... like a dark cloud hanging over my head, raining on m... Oh! Sorry about that! Haha! Please be sure to leave proper feedback for your trading partner, and mark the stars! The unwritten rule is to leave a five-star rating for a successful trade, but remember that the feedback is there for a reason. If the card(s) you received are slightly damaged, and the other traders will do nothing to replace it/them, then leave two stars on the "Item Description" rating. Rate honestly, and be sure to communicate with the other trader! If there is an issue and they are willing to fix it, then I personally do not think that there is a reason to not leave them a five-star rating.

***EDIT***

As for when you should leave feedback? I would say as soon as you have the cards in your hands and are marking the trade as received! If you messed up on your end of the trade, and are waiting for the other trader to leave you depleted feedback, ONLY so you can retaliate with an undeserved Negative feedback of your own... well, let's just say that you will lose some trading partners! If there is an issue with the trade, it would be greatly courteous and encouraged to try and work out a resolve before feedback is left. Please mark the appropriate feedback WHEN you receive the other trader's end of the deal, and do not retaliate with negative feedback just because you messed up and receive depleted feedback!

As for leaving feedback through your iPhone or android... DON'T!!! They are not compatible with the site's rating system yet, and the stars will not show up. This is how most people receive their negative feedback, and it makes for a hassle that the Mods will have to rectify. Remember that the Mods are here as volunteers, and do not receive anything but a good reputation for their time (citation needed ), so we should try and make this site as easy for them to work through as possible!

I have looked, but was unable to find a tutorial on how to create/update your Signature. Seeing as the Mods have a load of work on their hands at all times, I thought that I would post what I can to help people out.

You have to use your Photobucket, or other photo sharing site, account to upload a Signature to your profile. First you have to find/create the signature that you want to use. Beckett.com has set a size that they would like to see you use as a Signature, so please keep them reasonable. Upload the pic that you want to use, then copy the [IMG ] code on the picture that you would like to use as a banner. Paste this code in your Signature, along with any other text that you need/want (max length 255 characters) along with it. HTML is allowed in the signatures, so you can link your Photobucket, website, or anything else within the TOS.

In order to get to the Signature option, you have to go into the User Control Panel. This is located at the top of this screen, just above the Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Etc. Share Thread options. While in there, click on the Change Signature link in the menu on the left-hand side. There you will see a box that looks like a thread posting box. Write what you want in there and then hit the Update Signature button at the bottom. It will refresh your settings and you will be done. Keep in mind that you will have to limit your Signature pic to a reasonable size, or the Mods will do it for you.

Avatars

Tired of looking like everyone else on the site? Have a name but no face while posting on the boards? Feeling like nobody knows who you are? Well I have good news for you, dear Beckett Community member!!! You can change this with a few simple steps... and it's all FREEEEEEE!!!

So I'm not a good salesman! Haha! In order to add/change your Avatar so that you can stand out within the community, you have to head on in to the User Control Panel again, just like in Signatures above. On the left menu, above Change Signature, you will see a small picture frame with Change Avatar beside it. Click on this and you will be brought to the Upload Avatar page. Click on the Choose File button on the left to open your Pictures library on your computer. Choose the file that you would like (at least 200x200 pixels, and under 4MB) and hit Open. You then have to hit the Upload button on the right to upload the photo to the site.

Once the picture uploads to the site (might take a couple of tries), center the square box around the area of the picture that you would like to use as your Avatar. Satisfied? Then hit the Save Avatar button and you are done! It will not show up right away, so bear with it. It takes time for the site to approve your picture selection and 24 hours is the normal wait time. Hope to see more people with their Avatars updated!

Site Too Slow?

I know that things have been slow on the trading front, posting front, breaking front and well, pretty much every front here in the Beckett Community. It is off-season for the hockey collectors and I guess we have all dispersed for a bit to wander the streets, find other interests and deal with our lack of hockey intensity that we all enjoy so much while the game is on. There are still a few products to be released in the near future, so I hope to see a bit more action with those in hand.

As for beckett.com itself, I have been finding the loading times excruciatingly slow as of late. It takes up to a minute to load the forums and each thread, the Trade Tool is slowed down immensely... and don't get me started about the Organize! It took me nearly ten minutes to go through FOUR PAGES the other night! Not this again! This seems to be reminiscent of the previous site's final days.

Well, I am glad to share with you that this issue can be pretty well rectified by you, the trader! If you are using Internet Explorer 9, then you have to turn "Compatibility Mode" off. The site does not work in this mode, so having it on will slow your viewing down and cause problems for you.

Those of us using FireFox and Google Chrome are experiencing a cache issue. We have to clear our history and cache every-so-often, as to refresh the browser's viewing capabilities. I did this just yesterday and the site is back to prime working order for me now.

Beckett.com Personal Messages Tips

So I have been plodding around the site a bit lately, and have come across another issue that plagues the newer and unfamiliar users. This is that they are not emptying their Personal Messages Inbox and thus breaking the 200 PM limit. I know why this is happening, and it's an oversight that runs in two different areas of the site. Your Personal Messages inbox and the Organize.

First off, you have the 200 PM limit. This is a decent amount of space until you start having a back-and-forth with someone you are trying to work a deal out with. If you forget to un-check the "Save a Copy: save a copy of this message in your Sent Items folder" box under the message you are sending, you just doubled the amount of usage in your PM boxes. The message that the other party sent you and now the one that you sent to them. There is no way to permanently un-check that box, so (if you don't want to save a copy of the message) you will have to do it manually, every time.

So what happens to your messages that you have sent to the Trash Can? Well, they sit there, just like the cards in your Org. when you discard them. They are still there in your Inbox/Org. and are using up the space. So you now have to go and remove them from the Trash Can/Trash. This is a simple thing to do. For the PM Inbox, you simply have to go through the folders (Inbox, Sent Items and Drafts) to delete the messages you want to get rid of by clicking in the selection box at the left of the message(s) and then scrolling down to the bottom of the page and hitting the Delete button. This will send your unwanted messages to the Trash Can. All good? Nope! You now have to empty that Trash Can. To do this you have to click on the "Empty Folders" link above the Message Title:

Doing so will bring you to this screen:

While in there you will have the option of which folders you want to empty. Click on the Trash Can folder (or any folders you want to empty) and hit the Delete button below that box. This will clear your PM Inbox, allowing you to be able to receive messages again!

Now for the Org. you have to do pretty much the same thing. When you want to get rid of something just click the check-box to the left of the Item Description, scroll back to the top of the page and hit Send To Trash. Once that is done, click on the Trash collection in the menu on the left side of your Org. Wait for the screen to finish loading and then hit the Empty Trash button at the top of the screen:

You will be prompted to ensure that you want to do this, so hit yes (if you are sure). The items will be removed from you Org. and you will have more room.

On that note, there is one issue that has not been resolved in the Org. If you are deleting a Folder or Collection in you Org. you have to empty it first! Move the cards in said collection/folder to where you want them to be BEFORE you delete the collection/folder. Why is this so important? Well, if you fail to do so you will have "phantom" cards floating around in your Org. Without a tag on them they will be unassigned and unseen in your Org. unless you look for them. This can eat up valuable space if you don't have a subscription, or be a huge pain in the bum if your are near OCD like I am, and want to know where EVERYTHING in your Org. is located.

Well... I think that I have covered everything that I could think of. Keep in mind that this thread is just my thoughts and actions, and is by no means the rules. I am trying to give a hand to anyone that needs it, and if this thread is regarded by even one person and is able to help them in any way, I will feel that I have succeeded! Thank you for your time and patience, and behold the first rule of collecting...

Here's something I've wondered about on protecting cards when shipping - if you're shipping a lot of cards, say a 300 card base set, is a regular card box enough protection or would you put them in a card box and then put that inside another box, appropriately padded. I have this nagging feeling that our friendly postal clerk would drop a card box on a corner and damage the cards at that end of the box.... any experience with this kind of thing??

Building sets, and collecting Ovechkin, Varlamov, Neuvirth, Calle Johansson and
Craig Laughlin... and now Marcus Johansson

Just quickly to add to envelopes. Bubble mailers are great, and you did mention other "padded" envelopes. I have to recommend "Cushion" envelopes. I get them right at the Post Office and, personally, I like them better than bubble mailers. They're stiffer, harder to bend and rarely end up bent at all and they're not as bulky as bubble mailers.
Just thought I'd mention them, as they've made my hobby life way easier.

Great article Randi, maybe Beckett will hire you to be their trade monitor(or something to that effect). It would be much deserving. One thing that I would like to add is that everyone needs to go in and change the way their cards are marked in their organize as far as condition. Everyone knows or not, since Beckett made the last changes that cards now marked Mint 9 carry a 25% premium. So even though your cards may be mint(as I consider most of mine to be) change them to nrmt 8 or nrmt+ 8.5 so pricing will be correct, unless of course card is graded 9 or higher. If anyone needs help doing this just ask, as it is a pretty easy process to do.